Last Judgment

152 Pages·2009·0.55 MB·English

by  Emanuel Swedenborg

Last
Judgment
(Posthumous)
1762
© 2009 Swedenborg Foundation
This version was compiled from electronic files of the
Standard Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg as
further edited by William Ross Woofenden. Pagination of
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Contents
The English (sections 1–12)
The Dutch (13–23)
Calvin (24–25)
Melancthon (26–30)
Luther (31–36)
Zinzendorf (37–44)
The Moravians (45–57)
The Quakers (58)
The saints of the papists (59–68)
Mohammed and the Mohammedans (69–70)
Mohammed (71–83)
Mohammedans (84–101)
Some things concerning the papists (102–114)
The Africans (115–124)
The Gentiles (125–133)
The last judgment on the Protestants (134–179)
He-goats (180–182)
The dragon (183–190)
Faith alone (191–229)
Conclusion (230–232)
Love (233–250)
The Jews (251–261)
Leibniz and Wolff (262–264)
Newton (265–267)
London (268–277)
The Moravians (278–280)
The Dutch (281)
The Moravians in London, the Herrenhuters, and the Jews
(282–284)
The love of knowing (285–291)
The Jews (292–293)
The Moravians (294–302)
Degrees (303–323)
Wonderful things [on the language of spirits] (324–326)
The English (327–333)
In the treatise on the Ten Commandments (334–336)
Foods (337–338)
Marriage and adultery (339–341)
To do goods and not to fight against evils is to do goods
from self and not from the Lord (342–349)
The delight from the glory of being wise, and the delight
of commanding (350)
The Ten Commandments (351)
The last judgment (352)
The English (353–355)
The Ten Commandments (356)
Observations concerning faith (357)
Faith (358–364)
The Moravians (365)
Argument concerning the Judgment
LAST JUDGMENT (POSTHUMOUS) 355
Last Judgment
(Posthumous)
The English
1. The English appear a little to the right, in front, in a plane just
above the head. The light with them appears more interior than
with others in the Christian world, by which light the spiritual is
received which flows in from above. They see clearly in a moment
what flows in, and at once receive it; nor do they let it down into
their natural so grossly as others. Hence it is that the spiritual
appears clear also in the natural; but with others more obscure. But
they who are such, are those who have loved what is right and
sincere, and have acted from truth and sincerity, and who at the
same time have thought of God from religion.
2. When the last judgment was being executed, the Protestants
were then led into the middle, and they then appeared in this
order: The English in the middle, the Dutch towards the east and
south, the Germans more towards the north, the Swedes to the
north and west in the middle. All then appeared according to their
general genius as to the reception of good and truth.
3. Few of the English become genii, whose quality may be
described, since they do not depend much on their own thought,
but on the mouth of authority; for they easily receive if only they
are persuaded that the man is learned and sincere, and of their own
nation; their thought then appears lucid and interior.
4. It was perceived that many of the English will receive the
heavenly doctrine, and thereby come into the new Jerusalem;
LAST JUDGMENT (POSTHUMOUS) 356
because they are such that they receive the truths of faith more
easily than others, and see them in interior light.
5. I have spoken with the English concerning their natural
disposition; whence it is with them, that when they hear truths
from one among them worthy of belief, they then see them, and
thus easily conform to them; and whence it is that with them there
is a snowy appearance above their natural, that it is from heavenly
light, from which is intelligence; in like manner with the Dutch.
But as to the Dutch, with them there is not that snowy appearance,
but something firm in the confines of their spiritual and natural
minds; and that therefore they are slower. The cause of the
appearance of the light with the English was told, namely, that it is
from their life, which differs from the life of all other nations. That
the cause might be perceived, a comparison was made with the
Italians of this day; that their governments are altogether opposite.
In England there is freedom to speak and write both on civil and
spiritual things; but no freedom at all to use deceit and cunning to
deceive others, nor to lie in wait to murder, rob and kill; and if they
do it, there is no remission. But it is the opposite with the Italians
at this day. In Italy there is freedom to deceive by cunning and
guile, and also to kill; which freedom they have from so many
asylums, and from the dispensations; but there is no freedom at all
to speak and write on ecclesiastical and civil affairs there, on
account of the inquisition. Hence it is that the Italian nation retains
such things within, and thus a fire, which is a slow hatred, revenge,
and cruelty; which fire is like that which, after a conflagration, lies
hid long under the ashes, and consumes. But with the English
nation it is otherwise, because it is allowed to speak and write
freely. There such a fire is not laid up, but immediately burns out;
and they are kept in what is sincere and just by the fact that they
are not permitted to deceive, to rob, and to kill; since there is then
no dispensation, nor anywhere an asylum.
6. The English have quite an exquisite perception that a thing is
so, when it is said from reason. They have an interior sight as to
religion; but this sight which they have is a receptive sight, but not
so active that they can see before it has been confirmed by some
LAST JUDGMENT (POSTHUMOUS) 357
celebrated leader among them. Their interior sight is called the
intuitive and affirmative sight of reception, and likewise
confirmative; but chiefly by means of elegant things composed in a
spiritual manner; and this descends and proceeds from that snowy
appearance of theirs. This appears with them in the spiritual world;
on which account also they are in the middle among Christians; for
those are in the middle who are in interior light.
7. It was shown of what quality a book or writing appears to
them, which has been approved by a man in whose erudition they
have confidence; and of what quality a book or writing appears,
which is not yet approved. In writings not approved, when they are
read, they see nothing but the mere letter, or the sense of the letter;
but in an approved writing they see the sense of the matter, and not
of the letter; because they are then in enlightenment from the belief
that it is so; so that approval gives enlightenment. On which
account a writing, howsoever important, is not procured before it
has been praised by a man worthy of belief.
8. Since the English are of such a genius, there are therefore set
over them priests, and also magistrates, in whom they have
confidence that they are intelligent and wise; and they then yield a
favoring assent to them in everything which they say and teach. By
this they are held in obedience, and likewise in doctrine. But they
who are not compliant, and they who are wicked, are shut out of
their society; for these loose the bond and unanimity.
9. I have had much discourse with English priests concerning
faith, among whom also were bishops. Because it was according to
their doctrine, they insisted that faith alone produces the endeavor
to good. But to the question, whether by endeavor they meant
man’s manifest will, this they were unwilling to admit; because
everything that proceeds from man’s manifest will is in itself not
good, and is meritorious; wherefore by endeavor they meant an
internal operation, about which the understanding knows little;
consequently that such endeavor is inwardly in faith, and that it is
not manifested openly except by an inclination to doing. In this
opinion they were so tenacious, and also in this, that faith produces
LAST JUDGMENT (POSTHUMOUS) 358
the good which is called charity, that they were not willing to be
led, although it was told them from heaven, that faith does not
produce anything of charity, but that charity produces faith; and
that faith before charity is not living faith, but only knowledge; and
that a man ought to do good as of himself, and that otherwise
nothing of good is inrooted and implanted; but to this they shut
their ears. When they were told that one of the most talented of
them had thought out reasons and ways, even to a hundred, to
confirm that faith produces charity, and that he had wandered
through each way, as is done in the spiritual world by thinking that
it is so; but still, when he came to the end of the way, he saw from
enlightenment given him that he had been wandering, which he
also as often confessed. Also when their solemn exhortation at the
holy supper was read before them, wherein these things are said, . .
. they thought, but were unwilling to say, that this is said for the
laity, and that the doctrine is for the clergy; wherefore it was
announced to them, that life according to the faith of the laity
saves; but life according to the doctrine of the clergy condemns;
since in the faith of the clergy there is no life, and in their life there
is no faith; but there is in the faith and life of the laity.
10. In the spiritual world images and many other things can be
formed from the ideas of thought, and be presented to the sight;
which is peculiar to that world. Wherefore the same English priests
undertook to form an image in the likeness of a man, from the
ideas of their thoughts concerning faith alone, or faith separate
from charity; which image, when it was made, appeared monstrous,
as not unlike Dagon, the idol of the Philistines in Ekron; therefore
it was cast into a certain lake.
11. It is said of the English in the spiritual world, that they love
elegance in their discourses; and that such elegance has indeed a
delightful sound in the ears, but still gives little instruction;
especially when they treat of faith, and of justification by it; that
they then so arrange their words, that scarcely anyone knows
whether anything of good is to be done or not. They so weave
together series of conclusions, that they sound as if good should be
LAST JUDGMENT (POSTHUMOUS) 359
done; although these conclusions involve that faith produces them
without their knowing it.
12. In the spiritual world the face of the earth is similar to what it
is in the natural world. There are urban and country places there.
They who dwelt in cities in our world, dwell also in cities there; in
like manner those who lived in country places. Moreover, the cities
in the spiritual world are similar to the cities in the natural world,
but only as to the streets and public squares; but they are not
similar as to the buildings. Neither do the good and the evil dwell
promiscuously there; but in the middle of the city, where also are
the public buildings, dwell the best, who are the governors and
magistrates. To the east there are those who are in the clear good of
love, to the west those who are in the obscure good of love, to the
south those who are in the clear light of truth, to the north those
who are in the obscure light of truth. The good of love and the
truth of faith decrease from the middle into the farthest
circumferences. Since the cities there are similar to the cities in our
world, there is also a London there similar to London as to the
streets; but not as to the houses, neither as to the inhabitants, nor
their habitations in the quarters. I was conducted into it in the
spirit, and wandered through it, and recognized it. And I spoke
with certain ones there, and said that men in the world would
wonder, and would not believe that they who live in London see a
London also after death; and if they are good, also dwell in their
city; yet it is altogether so.
They said that neither would they have believed it, when they
were in the world; because such a thing does not fall into sensual
ideas, but only into rational ideas enlightened by spiritual light; also
that they did not then know that the spiritual appears before a
spirit as the material does before a man; and that all the things
which exist in the spiritual world are from a spiritual origin, as all
the things in the natural world are from a material origin; in like
manner the houses of a city, which are not built as in the world,
but rise up in a moment created by the Lord; so too all other
things.